Apollo Hyder

Biography

My songs (words & music) are available for placements with signed artists.
I also have lyrics that are available to composers for co-writing.

Around the age of twelve or thirteen I started hearing strange noises from the flat next door in the building where we lived at the lake of Zurich. I did not understand the nature of these sounds until a few years later, when the harbingers of my own virility made themselves known to me. But the Sultans of Swing spinning hot on the turntable just like Peter and Maria night after night in their bedroom got me in to song writing.

During the summer break from school that same year I worked at the local chocolate factory so I could buy a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. Still today it is the usual suspect in my hands when I start writing a new song.


Around the same time my brother came home with Ziggy Stardust in a plastic bag. As we slid the vinyl from its sleeve, we noticed an important message from Mr Jones: TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME. We tended to be obedient kids in cases such as these.

A friend added One Trick Pony to the thrill, others So Long, Marianne, In The Garden, Tamp 'Em Up Solid, and many more.


Literature, travel, encounters with humans and animals alike, walks in the woods, a career in business and education, the experience of martial law, detention by a violent militia and much more have been providing me with material for my songs. There are many waiting to be written.
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I continuously hone my songwriting skills. For example, I’ve attended courses at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and Jazz Campus Basel. From Martin R. Dean I learned how to write creatively and from Pat Pattison lyrically. The writing and co-writing sessions organised by Chris Difford have produced numerous songs and collaborations.


I was born 1966 and have been living and working in Zurich, Switzerland since 1967.